Running, sports performance improvement, hormones, dopamine, goal, pleasure, addiction, ... all this in the same article and all legal!
We have always heard that in long races it is good to divide, "chop" the race into smaller parts. For example, if we are running a marathon, divide the 42,195 meters in parts of 5 km each. We focus on reaching that first 5 km goal and when we achieve it we go for the next one, and then the next one, and so on until we can finish the marathon.
The purpose of dividing the race into smaller parts is the following: when we start running we think that we have nothing more and nothing less than 42 km ahead of us. Buff.... We have to be running for a long time to finish them and mentally it can make us leave already defeated. After a long time running we think that "I still have more than thirty kilometers to go... !!!!", I will not be able to finish...
If we divide the race into sections of 5 km, we focus on reaching those 5 km and then we will think about the next ones. Mentally we have a shorter and more achievable goal. That's how it is, and it's a method that works.
But today I also want to tell you what chemical process is produced in the brain, the hormones that we secrete and that will help us to achieve our goal, which is to finish the race. It is a topic of "drugs", but the ones that our body naturally secretes when we are trying to achieve a goal and the ones that are generated when we have achieved it.
First I am going to come back to something that I have said many times, but it is always good to repeat and repeat again and again; to achieve our sporting goal we need to have an objective and be clear about what we want to achieve that objective.
What is dopamine?
There is a hormone called Dopamine, which is naturally secreted by our body, although the way it is secreted is very different depending on the stimulus we receive. Let's take a look at it:
On the one hand, you may have heard of Dopamine related to the consumption of alcohol, tobacco, chocolate.... Here dopamine is linked to a certain "dependence" not to say addiction. When we consume these products it gives us pleasure by generating dopamine. Even in some cases, the cell phone can generate this situation (think of these people that the first thing they do in the morning is to see their mobile messages, on social networks, and that go around the house with the phone in hand, attentive to any new notice). This is when we say "being hooked".
There is another aspect of Dopamine and it is the pleasure we feel when we achieve a goal. We set out to achieve something and when we do it we generate dopamine. Dopamine produces well-being and pleasure and our brain loves to feel that pleasure so it wants more, and we will have a burst of energy and willpower to feel that pleasure again. This is the part that has to do with running.
Small successes
Let's imagine that we divide a marathon into parts, each of 5 km. At that moment, our goal is to reach that distance, to run those five km. And what happens when we succeed, when we have achieved our goal of running those five km? We feel satisfaction, pleasure because we have achieved it. We generate dopamine. And because our brain loves that feeling of pleasure, it wants to experience it again. And what will it do? Push us to do another 5 km, give us new encouragement, reinforce our willpower. When we run them we will have achieved our goal, we generate dopamine again and we get pleasure again. And again, and again....
This also happens with training. We have all felt that feeling of pride, of satisfaction when we have finished a hard workout, one of those in which we have to do series, or do slopes, or simply one of those days with bad weather, cold and rain.We finish the training, we are taking a shower and we feel at ease, satisfied and proud of the training we have done, with a feeling of wellbeing and pleasure; that is the dopamine. We have achieved our goal, in this case to do a good workout on a hard day. And since our brain loves that feeling, it will do its best to feel it again. We have overcome the difficulties, the obstacles and we feel great. The next day we go back for more, we want more, and we go back to running and pushing ourselves.
Finally, remember that mental work, having a clear goal, wanting to break the limits, etc ... will help us, but always hand in hand with physical training. However much mental strength, however much dopamine, seratonin, etc ... that we generate, alone will not make us finish a race, achieve our goal or improve a record. Work on both aspects and you will achieve what you set out to do.
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